Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on Paul (17 vols.)

by Alistair Scott May; Ray Van Neste; Atsuhiro Asano; Richard W. Johnson

and

18 more

Publishers:

T&T Clark; Sheffield Academic Press

, 2000–2005

Overview

The Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on Paul assembles some of the most penetrating investigations into the character and content of Paul’s epistles available. Each book in this collection features exhaustive analyses of Paul from a host of viewpoints, all serving to construct a more perfect reflection of the apostle, his theology, and his world. Surveying a variety of aspects of Pauline Christianity, this collection canvasses topics as diverse as Paul’s political motivations, community-identity construction, the prevalence of non-Pauline interpolations in the Epistles, scalometry’s relevance to Paul’s writings, and many other fascinating issues. Written with the academic in mind, the progressive thought and timely analysis exhibited here will prove profitable to anyone wishing to study this complex apostle more deeply.

About the Series

The Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement (renamed the Library of New Testament Studies in 2005) is a premier book series that offers cutting-edge work for a readership of scholars, teachers in the field of New Testament studies, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates. The series was launched by Sheffield Academic Press in 1981 to complement its associated journal, the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. All the many and diverse aspects of New Testament study are represented and promoted in the series, including innovative work from historical perspectives, studies using social-scientific and literary theory, and developing theological, cultural and contextual approaches.

Product Details

• Title: Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on Paul (17 vols.)
• Volumes: 17
• Pages: 4,912

Body for the Lord: Sex and Identity in 1 Corinthians 5-7

• Author: Alistair May
• Vol. 278 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 312

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Alistair May explores the part played by sexual ethics and the rhetoric of sexual morality in the formation of Christian identity by focusing on the longest discussion of sex in the New Testament - 1Corinthians 5-7. Viewing this passage as a unified discourse, May considers how Paul's ethics serve to give his converts a distinct identity. Although tools from the social sciences are used, the major focus of the work is in careful exegesis of the text.

As the study progresses through the text of 1Corinthians 5-7, May argues that Paul strives to maintain an absolute distinction between insider and outsider in regard to morality. Immorality belongs exclusively to the outside and to the pre-conversion identity of the Corinthians. Hence those labeled immoral can no longer remain in the community.

1 Corinthians 6.12-20 reveals that, for Paul, sexual sin is unique in its destruction of Christian identity and that any sexual participation is a potential conflict with participation in Christ. Thus, chapter 6 is directly connected with the discussion of the legitimacy of marriage in 1Corinthians 7. Rejecting the scholarly consensus that Paul is reacting to ascetics, May controversially argues that chapter 7 should be read as Paul's commendation of singleness to a reluctant Corinthian audience.

Rev Dr. Alisair S. May earned his Ph.D. at Glasgow University in 2001. He now serves as a Church of Scotland parish minister in Rutherglen.

Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles

• Author: Ray Van Neste
• Vol. 280 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 368

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Ray Van Neste seeks to further the scholarly discussion of the coherence of the Pastoral Epistles by providing the most thorough analysis to date of the cohesion of each letter.

The need for such a study arises from two sources. First, the previous works on coherence of the Pastorals, which have turned the tide of scholarship, focused on thematic coherence of the corpus. Second, the renewed and even more extreme argument for incoherence begs response along the lines just suggested since it analyzes connections and lack thereof within and between the discourse units.

Van Neste examines 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus to determine the boundaries of each discourse unit using cohesion shift analysis. The cohesion of each unit is then analyzed, noting common devices from the ancient epistolary genre, rhetorical devices, lexical and semantic repetition and symmetrical patterns.

Van Neste also focuses on connections between the units in the letter - connections between contiguous units, semantic chains, and the grouping of units into larger sections. Thus the variety of connections across and throughout the letter are highlighted. Van Neste concludes that there is a high degree of cohesion in each of the Pastoral Epistles at both the micro and macro levels.

Ray Van Neste is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Union University and is Director of the Ryan Center for Biblical Studies. He completed his Ph.D at Aberdeen University and has served in pastoral ministry in the US and UK.

Community-Identity Construction in Galatians: Exegetical, Social-Anthropological and Socio-Historical Studies

• Author: Atsuhiro Asano
• Vol. 285 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 288

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The issue of community-identity construction in Galatians is considered using two methods: first, by applying anthropological theories to the mechanism and natures of community-identity and its construction, and second, by comparing the Galatian community with another minority religious community.

Asano argues that Paul's effort at identity construction is partially conditioned by his self-awareness as an autonomous apostle and by the external pressures of the significant groups elsewhere. Paul's conflict is understood as a conflict between the ethno-centred and the 'instrumental mode' of community constructions, the latter of which is free from the constraints of core ethnic sentiment.

Galatians 4.21-31 is identified as a conceptual framework (or 'recreated worldview') for the community members to be assured of their authentic existence under marginalizing pressure. This recreated worldview is ritually acted out in baptism with the egalitarian motif (Gal 3.28) to help internalize the authentic identity.

Finally, Paul's letter is suggested to have functioned as a physical locus of community-identity. Thus the autographic marker directs the attention of the audience not only to the conceptual content but to the presence of the founding apostle that the letter replaces.

Atsuhiro Asano received his Ph. D.  from Oxford University and is Assistant Professor at Nihon University as well as adjunct lecturer at Tokyo Christian University.

Going Outside the Camp: The Sociological Function of the Levitical Critique in the Epistle to the Hebrews

• Author: Richard Johnson
• Vol. 209 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 177

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Johnson's study of Hebrews is unusual in adopting a social-scientific analysis. He examines the implicit sociological data in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and locates the implied society within the context of the larger Graeco-Roman world. From this he concludes that the author of Hebrews advocates an ideal society that is both more open to outsiders and more willing to assimilate fully new members than was first-century CE hellenistic Judaism.

According to the group/grid paradigm developed by Mary Douglas, the implied society can be categorized as +weak' group/'weak' grid, in contrast to +strong' group/'strong' grid Hellenistic Judaism. The critique of the levitical system in Hebrews can be seen as supporting the author's advocacy of that implied open society.

Richard Johnson is Assistant Professor of Religion, Charleston Southern University, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

Interpolations in the Pauline Letters

• Author: William O. Walker, Jr
• Vol. 213 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 233

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

In this fundamental and at times provocative study, Walker demonstrates that Paul's letters contain later, non-Pauline additions or interpolations and that such interpolations can sometimes be identified with relative confidence.

He begins by establishing that interpolations are to be assumed simply on a priori grounds, and that direct text-critical evidence is not essential for their recognition. He also suggests that the burden of proof in their identification is lighter than most have assumed, and that specific evidence for interpolation is often available.

Successive chapters then argue that 1 Cor. 11.3-16, 1 Cor. 2.6-16, 1 Cor. 12.31b-14.1a, and Rom. 1.18-2.29 are in fact non-Pauline interpolations. Walker goes on to summarize arguments for the same conclusion regarding five additional passages. A brief epilogue addresses the question of interpolations and the canonical authority of scripture.

William O. Walker, Jr is the Jennie Farris Railey King Professor of Religion, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.

Legitimation in the Letter to the Hebrews: The Construction and Maintenance of a Symbolic Universe

• Author: Iutisone Salevao
• Vol. 219 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 456

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews. Employing sociological models, the book examines Hebrews in the context of the early Christians' construction and maintenance of a social world. In that respect, the book elaborates the thesis that Hebrews was designed to serve a legitimating function in the realm of social interaction. Its theology, symbolism and argument were designed to construct and maintain the symbolic universe of the community of the readers. It is argued that we cannot properly understand the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews apart from its first-century context.

Iutisone Salevao is Honorary Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Letter Hermeneutics in 2 Corinthians: Studies in 'Literarkritik' and Communication Theory

• Author: Eve-Marie Becker
• Vol. 279 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 224

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

In this volume, Eve-Marie Becker outlines the process of Paul's communication with the Corinthian community and considers letter-production and letter-reception at the time. She develops a "literary-historical" model for reconstructing the original separate letters (1.1-7.4; 7.5-16; 8--9; 10--13) which were later compiled to form the canonical letter.

Becker defines - by means of linguistics and communication theory - the central theoretical elements for Pauline letter-hermeneutics. There is a thorough exegesis of those parts of 2 Corinthians in which Paul formulates aspects of his hermeneutics. This is based on the theory of letter-hermeneutics and on the results of the "literary-historical" reconstruction of the original form of 2 Corinthians. There is also an examination of the reception and interpretation of 2 Corinthians in the early church.

Dr. Eve-Marie Becker is Professor at Århus University.

Looking for Life: The Role of 'Theo-Ethical Reasoning' in Paul's Religion

• Author: John G. Lewis
• Vol. 291 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 320

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Through exegetical studies of 1 Corinthians and Galatians, John Lewis shows how Paul synthesizes theology and ethics - which interpreters frequently separate - as integrated aspects of Christian thinking and living. This fusion becomes evident in Paul's complex process of theological, moral reasoning that lies beneath the surface of his letters for which we have coined the phrase 'theo-ethical reasoning'.

The book also examines how Paul encourages his churches to apply this theo-ethical reasoning in the community practice of spiritual discernment - a dialogical, comparative process of reasoned reflection on behavior and experience. Through this practice of looking for life, community members are led by the Spirit as they reason together. They attempt to associate the manifestations of new life with conduct that faithfully portrays Christ's self-giving pattern.

This correlation of conduct with experience grounds Paul's own proclamation of Jesus Christ in word and deed. It also becomes the foundation for believers' faith and hope as they come to know Christ and experience the power of God. Thus, the book concludes that the practice of spiritual discernment by means of theo-ethical reasoning lies at the centre of Paul's religion.

John G. Lewis, in varied teaching positions in the church, university, and seminary, integrates his experience as lawyer, New Testament scholar, and Episcopal priest to help people correlate faith and scripture with their experiences of ministry in daily life.

Paul, Luke and the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of Alexander J. M. Wedderburn

• Editors: Alf Christophersen, Bruce Longenecker, Carsten Claussen, Jörg Frey
• Vol. 217 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 312

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The quality of contributions in this volume reflects the eminence of Sandy Wedderburn, who taught at St Andrews before moving to Durham and finally to Munich to succeed Ferdinard Hahn. The topics addressed reflect Wedderburn's interests and include: a comparison of the Lord's Supper with cultic meals in Qumran and in Hellenistic cults, glossolalia in Acts, the Lukan prologue, 'new creation' in Paul, and Adam and Christ in Romans.

Contributors include David Aune, Richard Bauckham, Richard Bell, James Dunn, Ferdinand Hahn, Christina Hoegen-Rohls, Robert Jewett, Hans Klein, H.-W. Kuhn, David Moessner, Stanley Porter, Heikki Raisanen, Margaret Thrall, Oda Wischmeyer and Chrisitian Wolff.

Alf Christophersen is Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Protestant Theological Faculty, University of Munich.

Bruce Longenecker is Lecturer in New Testament Studies at St Andrews University, Scotland.
Carsten Claussen is Lecturer in New Testament Theology, Protestant Theological Faculty, University of Munich.

Jörg Frey is Professor of New Testament Theology, Protestant Theological Faculty, University of Munich.

Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity

• Author: Nancy Calvert-Koyzis
• Vol. 273 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 224

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Many scholars have noticed the significance of Abraham traditions in Early Christianity. However, none have analyzed early Jewish or Pauline texts from the perspective of the most prevalent tradition about Abraham: his rejection of idolatry for monotheistic faith.

Here, Nancy Calvert-Koyzis examines early Jewish documents in which the tradition of Abraham and monotheism plays a significant part. These include works from both Philo and Josephus, as well as the Biblical Antiquities, Jubilees, and the Apocalypse of Abraham. Each document is analyzed with the historical context in mind in order to ascertain how this monotheistic tradition, and in some cases the tradition of Abraham's obedience of the law, functioned to define who were members of the people of God.

Next, the author analyses Paul's epistles to the Galatians and Romans from the standpoint of the tradition of Abraham's rejection of idolatry from monotheism. She finds that Paul most probably had traditions of Abraham's monotheistic faith in mind as he redefines the people of God in Christ. Abraham's monotheistic faith in the Pauline texts is now fulfilled in Christ. This is in contrast to the use of monotheistic traditions about Abraham to define the people of God in early Jewish literature. Ironically, those who maintain that obedience to the law is necessary for members of the people of God are shown to be idolaters. This in contrast to those who embrace fulfilled monotheistic faith like their forefather, Abraham.

Dr Nancy Calvert-Koyzis is a part-time member of the faculty at McMaster University and at Redeemer University College.

Pauline Conversations in Context: Essays in Honor of Calvin J. Roetzel

• Editors: Janice Capel Anderson, Philip Sellew, Claudia Setzer
• Vol. 221 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 312

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The "conversations" in this collection open by challenging ideas that have become standard and subject them to critical re-examination. The central thread of all these essays is a reflection on the processes of reading and theologizing.

Among the contributors to this volume are David E. Aune, Jouette Bassler, Daniel Boyarin, Neil Elliott, Victor Paul Furnish, Lloyd Gaston, Steven J. Kraftchick, Robert C. Morgan, J. Andrew Overman, Mark Reasoner, Peter Richardson, and Robin Scroggs. Juanita Garciagodoy and David H. Hopper offer appreciations of Calvin Roetzel as a teacher and colleague.

Janice Capel Anderson teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Idaho.

Philip Sellew teaches in the Department of Classical & Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Claudia Setzer is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY

Pauline Persuasion: A Sounding in 2 Corinthians 8-9

• Author: Kieran J. O'Mahony
• Vol. 199 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 208

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

This is a book about the use of classical rhetoric in reading Paul. It begins with a useful review of the various strategies. In the light of the issues that emerge, it describes a rhetorical method which is then tested on 2 Corinthians 8-9. Here, the advice of the classical rhetorical manuals for constructing a text is used-in reverse order-so as to uncover the persuasive strategy being used by Paul in this case. This technique leads to a quite new reading of the two chapters, which O'Mahony then proceeds to test against the standard work in the field by Hans Dieter Betz.

Kieran J. O'Mahony is Lecturer in New Testament at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin.

Polemic of the Pastorals

• Author: Lloyd K. Pietersen
• Vol. 264 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 182

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Much historical-critical work on the opponents in the Pastoral Epistles has resulted in sweeping generalizations concerning their Jewish and/or Gnostic nature. Literary analyses have been somewhat more promising in focusing on the stereotypical nature of the polemic, but either fail to do justice to the urgency of the language in the Pastorals or do not provide a convincing description of the opponents.

Here Pietersen approaches the problem of the opponents from a socio-scientific perspective. Utilizing labeling theory and social control theory from the sociology of deviance, he argues that the Pastorals function as a literary version of a status degradation ceremony whereby previously influential insiders within the community are transformed into outsiders.

Lloyd K. Pietersen is Senior Lecturer and Research Coordinator in New Testament Studies at the University of Gloucestershire.

Political Paul: Justice, Democracy and Kingship in a Hellenistic Framework

• Author: Bruno Blumenfeld
• Vol. 210 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 512

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Political Paul presents Paul as a political thinker. Many studies claiming Paul for Greek Hellenism discuss the influence upon him of various aspects of Hellenistic culture, but strangely neglect Hellenistic political philosophy with its roots in Classical antiquity. Political Paul explores this dimension of Paul's thought within the general context of Hellenistic political reflection to focus on the intriguing body of literature known as the Pythagorean pseudepigrapha.

These researches support the highly original argument that Christianity has foundations in Hellenistic kingship theories. Paul constructs a political theory for Christianity. He conceives it as a polis-basileia system, politics proper and divine rule, each with its own dikaiosyne; this the study re-evaluates as a political concept.

Bruno Blumenfeld is an independent scholar living in New York City.

Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy

• Author: Douglas A. Campbell
• Vol. 274 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 304

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Douglas Campbell gives a clear account of why much current description of Paul's theology, and of his gospel and of his theory of salvation, is so confused. After outlining the difficulties underlying much of the current debate he lays out some basic options that will greatly clarify the debate. He then engages with these options and shows how one offers far more promise than the others, sketching out some of its initial applications.

Campbell then shows in more detail how another option -- the main alternative, and the main culprit in terms of many of our difficulties -- can be circumvented textually, in a responsible fashion. That is, we see how we could remove this option from Paul's text exegetically, and so reach greater clarity.

Finally, he concludes with a 'road-map' of where future, more detailed, research into Paul needs to go if the foregoing strategy is to be carried out thoroughly. Campbell believes that by utilizing this strategy Paul's gospel will be shown to be both cogent and constructive.

Douglas A. Campbell is currently Assistant Professor of New Testament in the Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles on aspects of the Apostle Paul's life and thought.

Scalometry and the Pauline Epistles

• Author: George Barr
• Vol. 261 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 192

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

“Scale” is well known and understood in creative arts such as architecture, sculpture and music, but New Testament scholars have given no significant consideration to scale changes in the Biblical texts. A robust methodology allows scale changes in literature to be examined scientifically and reveals “scale-related” patterns in the epistles.

To determine the significance of these patterns, George Barr has conducted a wide survey covering many texts in Greek, Latin and English. It reveals that the patterns found in the New Testament are very rare indeed, if not unique, and gives grounds for the belief that such patterns are associated with authorship. The patterns found in the Pauline epistles clarify some theories regarding the origins of the epistles and, in some cases, shed new light on their compilation.

George Barr has a Ph.D. in the subject of "Scale in Literature" and is the author of many journal articles on the subject. He is a minister in an area of social deprivation.

Significance of Clothing Imagery in the Pauline Corpus

• Author: Jung Hoon Kim
• Vol. 261 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 288

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

There are references to clothing throughout Paul’s letters, and the metaphor constitutes a significant aspect of his theology. The imagery appears several times in his letters: clothing with Christ (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14), clothing with the new man (Col 3:9–10; Eph 4:22–24), and clothing with the resurrection body (1 Cor 15:49, 50–54; 2Cor 5:1–4).

In order to understand the background to this use of the clothing metaphor, Jung Hoon Kim examines similar imagery in the Old Testament, 1 and 2 Enoch, the Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, rabbinic literature, Joseph and Aseneth, the Hymn of the Pearl, and Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. He also discusses the Roman custom of clothing and the baptismal praxis of the ancient church.

Kim concludes that Paul’s metaphor suggests the life and glory of the image of God, which were lost by Adam, have been restored by baptism in Christ, and will go on to be consummated at the parousia.

Jung Hoon Kim received his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow and is currently working in the University of Cheonan, Korea.

Sample Pages from Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on Paul (17 vols.)